This study is a valuable contribution to recent efforts to both broaden and deepen the understanding of the social status system of the late Chosŏn dynasty. Centering on the institution of military examinations, Eugene Y. Park discusses the formation and identity of a military aristocracy, the role of the military examination for local elites, and the ambitions of nonelites for social advancement though the examination. Park argues that understanding the military examination's place in late Chosŏn society “can help us analyze social change because the degree was accessible to a far more diverse pool of candidates than any other examination” (p. 10).
In chapter 1, the author describes how the early Chosŏn state brought the private armies of the Koryŏ/Chosŏn transition period under the control of the state and standardized the recruitment procedures through the establishment of a permanent military examination system. Park argues that although the political stature of military examination graduates declined in early Chosŏn, the military examinations continued to be dominated by yangban. Furthermore, yangban lineages did not make any civil-military distinction, either in terms of examination choice or marriage patterns. However, as described in chapter 2, from the seventeenth century onward, a separate military aristocracy started to emerge in the capital as a result of the increasing domination of the civil branch of central government by a relatively small number of capital civil official descent groups.
The centralization of political power in a small group of descent groups in the capital marginalized other segments of yangban as well, and Park's book describes how the state used the expanding military examination system to mollify such groups. Chapter 3 details how marginalized local elites turned to military examinations, providing an interesting comparison of southern, Kaesŏng, and northern elites and their attitudes toward such examinations. Having outlined the military aristocracy and discussed the southern local elite, chapter 4 briefly puts the military examination system to the side and looks at the relationship between the military aristocracy and the southern local elite and the powerful civil aristocracy. Based on an analysis of marriage and adoption patterns, Park concludes that these groups saw themselves as one cohesive status group. Chapter 5, finally, returns to the military examination system and the role of nonelites in it. Observing an increasing percentage of nonelites among the people who passed the exam, this chapter elaborates on the status aspirations of these groups and on popular attitudes toward the military and military ethos.
This is a well-researched and highly interesting study. Unfortunately, the findings are somewhat eclipsed by the choice of theoretical framework. Analyzing the role of the military examination system in late Chosŏn society and in the status consciousness of the time, Park uses Pierre Bourdieu's concept of hysteresis. In the conclusion, Park states that this concept “describes the search by status-conscious social upstarts for diplomas or certificates that no longer function as vital credentials for the old elite” (p. 181). Leaving aside the question of whether this is an accurate representation of Bourdieu's concept, there is nothing in Park's study to indicate that the military examination degree had lost its credential-giving function for the yangban. The book, rather, argues that men from the central aristocracy who passed the military examination continued to staff the military branch of the central officialdom (p. 182), and, furthermore, the study challenges the notion that the military and civil parts of the yangban constituted two separate status groups by late Chosŏn through a discussion of marriage and adoption patterns (chapter 4).
Furthermore, suggesting a lag between the habitus and external conditions and its concomitant discussion of disillusionment and rejection of the system, the application of hysteresis seems to indicate that the nonelite who aspired for these degrees thought that they would obtain the same status as the “old elite.” However, the conclusion that the marginalized elites and nonelites who passed the examination were pleased with the system (p. 182) indicates that they were well aware of what was offered them. Park indeed points out such deviations from Bourdieu's premises, but given the strong ascriptive character of Chosŏn's social status system, the application of hysteresis contributes little to the understanding of what role the military examination system played in late Chosŏn society. As the study convincingly shows, it was family background and not degree that decided a person's status in society, although the degree obtained to a certain extent could influence the relative standing within a status group or a smaller community.
This unfortunate framing, however, does not detract from the value of Park's conclusions: that the state continuously used the military examination system to staff central officialdom; that the people of yangban descent who passed the exam and received such positions formed a military aristocracy; that this military aristocracy, although it formed distinct lines and its members were excluded from civil positions, was continuously considered to belong to the same social status group as the civil counterpart; and that the state increased the numbers of examination passers not only to staff the military, but also to satisfy the aspirations of marginalized yangban and nonelites. This book is an important contribution to the field, and as such, it should be compulsory reading for anyone discussing the social and institutional history of late Chosŏn.
